Tuesday, August 11, 2009

End Dangerous ID

Unbelievably, Congress and the Obama administration are currently trying to resurrect the failed REAL ID Act, more accurately named "Dangerous ID."

Dangerous ID, which passed in 2005, establishes a de facto National Identification System, and opens the doors for Federal biometric tracking of every American citizen.

Fortunately, no state currently complies with the burdensome mandates of the 2005 bill, and twenty-three have passed legislation refusing compliance.

So what does the Obama Administration want to do?

You guessed it: "Fix it," and ram it down states' throats.

Well, I say "Repeal it." What do you say?

You see, as Obama Administration Surveillance Czar Janet Napolitano pushes for a revamp of the system to get the invasive federal program up and running, there has never been a better time to for us to push back, and fight for an outright repeal of the original legislation.

And although Dangerous ID is a clear attempt to establish a National ID System, the reality might be much worse -- an INTERNATIONAL Identification System. That's why it is so critical we get that law off the books.

You see, Dangerous ID actually requires that driver's license photographs meet United Nation's biometric format standards. At this level of sophistication, government software can analyze facial characteristics and generate a unique identification number.

Think about that for a moment -- your identity will be reduced to a single number in an international database that can be tracked globally by one-world government surveillance cameras and facial recognition software.

Last month, Senator Daniel Akaka introduced The PASS ID Act to tweak the 2005 Dangerous ID legislation and ram this program into action over state opposition.

Supporters claim this REAL ID Redux bill softens requirements on states, supposedly making the breach of federalism a little more palatable. But it is merely a transparent attempt to get the Dangerous ID system implemented in any form, only to be augmented later to meet government's needs.

In fact, there is evidence that this reincarnated Dangerous ID bill could wind up being worse than the original.

Chief among the bill's supporters is Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, who stands to wield expansive and virtually unchecked power to set standards.

Under Dangerous ID, Napolitano can unilaterally expand required information on driver's licenses, potentially to include biometric information such as retinal scans, fingerprints, DNA information, and even Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) radio tracking technology.

If international databases, RFID and biometric identification cards, and constant government surveillance are as alarming to you as they are to me, I hope you'll click here to sign Campaign for Liberty's petition to stop REAL ID Redux and repeal Dangerous ID.